Dragon Chronicles: Gift of the Night Fury
by Optimus524
Summary: The next story of my Dragon Chronicles series. Now Hiccup and his new friends are spending the holiday's with their dragons but something terrible happens that might ruin it for everyone.
1. A Bad Start to the Hoildays

**Sorry for the long wait but I was on holiday but now I'm back. For those of you who what to know I will be doing Riders of Berk but I suggest that you read my first Dragon Chronicles story first.**

* * *

Berk is the kind of balmy, fun-in-the-sun climate that will give you frostbite on your spleen. The one upside is our annual holiday. We call it Snoggletog. Why we chose that name remains a mystery. But with the war long over and dragons living amongst us this year's Snoggletog promises to be one to remember.

Hiccup was sleeping in his room but suddenly a huge crash from up on the roof. The ceiling shuddered and Hiccup tiredly sat up on the edge of the bed and stretched.

"Okay, okay I'm up." Hiccup said tiredly. Still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he grabbed his helmet.

He walked outside into the crispy cold morning air. Hiccup looked up at the roof and saw Toothless was jumping eagerly on top of it causing tiles to fall off.

"Good morning Mister Bossy." Hiccup said sarcastically. Toothless gave him a series of gurgles and growls. Hiccup then did the same to him. "Do you always have to wake me up so early to go flyIIIINNG!" Hiccup's question turned into a startled yell as he abruptly slipped on a patch of ice.

Toothless jumped down from the roof in time to catch him. "Stupid leg." Hiccup muttered, shacking his prosthetic leg around he then looked at Toothless smiling. "Uh, thanks buddy I'm okay. Yeah we can go flying now."

Just as Hiccup came close to his face the dragon's mouth opened and he rumbled happily and burped. Hiccup quickly pulled back and frantically began to fan dragon breath away from his face.

"Ew! What? Ew! Toothless!" Hiccup said smiling.

A few moments later they were airborne flying around Berk. For the past few days they had been practicing some aerial tricks and today Hiccup was hoping to perfect one of them.

"Come on, let's see what you got today!" Hiccup called to Toothless

They angled downward in a steep dive through the clouds. Hiccup let out a whoop as they sped toward the sea,

"Yeah!" Hiccup yelled as Toothless sharply angled up and sped across the water about ten feet from the surface. Ahead of him Hiccup saw a arch and he reached out to pat Toothless' neck.

"Okay, you ready?" Hiccup asked. Hiccup carefully unhooked his leg from the stirrup and slowly lifted himself into an uneasy surfing position on Toothless's back. "Easy…" Hiccup murmured grinning as the arch loomed closer and closer.

Hiccup took a deep breath and leaped into the air soared over the arch and landed safely on Toothless who had flown underneath. Hiccup then quickly hooked his prosthetic leg into the stirrup.

"Yes!" He cried happily as Toothless flew out over the open sea. "Finally!"

* * *

Meanwhile back on Berk, everybody had woken up and was busy happily decorating the village for Snoggletog. Dragons with Vikings atop them flew left and right carrying everything from shields to pine wreathes. Gobber was standing in front of a house that was being decorated with wreathes directing a Ragnar and Skull.

"Here?" Ragnar asked.

"Yes, yes…no, no, no, that one, a wee bit higher!" Gobber yelled up to his son as he hovered over the face of the building with a wreath.

"Here?" Ragnar yelled back waving his arm at a spot at the top of the house.

"There! Aye that's the spot!" Gobber said pleased.

Stoick walked up to Gobber and placed his hand on his shoulder and smiled. A young child dressed in a makeshift Gronkle costume run up to Meatlug and roar at him. Meatlug responded with a louder roar that blew the child back a few inches but the child merely giggled and ran away with Meatlug following behind. From atop a ladder Fishlegs proudly looked down at the dragon and smiled.

"At boy Meatlug!" Fishlegs said.

Astrid and Stormfly were standing next to a pile of shields at the base of the huge wooden tree in the centre of the village. Astrid picked up a shield in each hand and grinned at Stormfly.

"Are you ready girl?" She asked. Stormfly growled and shook herself raising her spiky tail.

Astrid then threw the shields into the air. Stormfly flicked her tail and sent several spikes flying. One by one they hit the shields in mid-air and skewered them to the tree. Stoick and Gobber strolled through the village watching the everyone helping out.

"Odin's beard Gobber Vikings spending the Winter holiday with dragons! What would our fathers say?" Stoick said shaking his head in amusement.

"They'd think we'd lost our minds." Gobber responded cheerfully.

Stoick let out a hearty laugh at his words and stopped in front of the large crowd of decorating Vikings.

"Well done!" He yelled. "Well done all of you!" The crowd turned to their chief and smiled awaiting his next words. "I never thought I'd live to see this day," Stoick began. The Vikings with their dragons close by reached out to give them an appreciative pat. "Peace on the island of Berk. This shall surely be the greatest holiday we've ever seen!" At his words the entire crowd let out a cheer and a round of applause. Suddenly there was a low rumble from the sky. Stoick stopped smiling and looked up. "What the?"

One by one all the dragons looks skyward sniffing the air curiously their heads twitching from side to side. Stormfly lifted her head from Astrid's arms and hissed at the sky. The entire sky was filled with the shapes of dragons all flying in a giant cloud toward Odin-knows-where.

"What in Thor's name…?" Gobber said in confusion.

Hookfang climbed to the top of one of the bigger houses and let out a loud roar before alighting and taking off into the sky.

"Come back!" Snotlout yelled who was left dangling from the roof. "What are you doing?"

As the rest of the grounded dragons laid eyes on their flying relatives, they took to the sky and quickly flew off to join them, ignoring their human friends' cries.

"Meatlug!" Fishlegs shrieked running towards him.

While half of the Vikings scrambled around trying to restrain their dragons, the other half simply stood and watched gasping to one another.

"What's going on?" A Viking said.

"What's happening?" Another Viking asked.

"Where's Hiccup?" Astrid whispered scanning the crowd.

* * *

Meanwhile Hiccup and Toothless were still flying completely unaware of what was happening.

"What do you say bud you wanna go again?" Hiccup asked.

Hiccup looked up and saw thousands of dragons flying at them. They had appeared out of nowhere Hiccup hadn't seen them in the thick fog. Hiccup let out a startled yell and he and Toothless swerved to the right narrowly avoiding a collision with the dragons. But a stray Deadly Nadder who had gotten too close nicked one of the horns on Hiccup's helmet and sent it flying.

"Oh no, my helmet!" Hiccup gasped. He watched the gift from his father plummet out of sight.

Toothless heard Hiccup cry out glanced down at the helmet, and with a grunt immediately plunged downwards after it. "Toothless No, no, no, no!" The dragon didn't seem to hear him and kept diving. "Whoa, whoa, whoa wait Toothless! Stop!" Hiccup cried. Toothless extended his wings and slowed to a halt.

"We'll get it later bud." Hiccup assured his dragon, who was frantically watching the helmet fall faster towards the sea. "We need to get back and find out what's going on." Toothless reluctantly turned around in the air and with a roar and flew toward the island.

"What's the matter?" Viking asked running after a Monstrous Nightmare who had just taken flight. "Where are you going?"

Astrid, in panic, spotted Stormfly and extended her hands towards her. "No, no, no, no don't leave, Stormfly don't go—!" But it was too late; Stormfly had taken off already without even a backwards glance. "Please?" Astrid finished in a small voice.

"Skull come back where are you going?" Ragnar asked as Skull flew off.

Hiccup and Toothless reached the island at that moment and Hiccup leaped off the Toothless' back the instant his feet touched land.

"Astrid!" He yelled

"Hiccup!" Astrid cried as she and Ragnar running towards him. "What's going on? Where are they going?"

"This is not how I wanted the holiday's to start." Ragnar dsid.

Hiccup turned and gazed out at the sky where the dragons were flying off into the distance. Behind him the crowd of Vikings had caught up to them and they were yelling out questions to him faster than he could speak.

"Why did they leave?" One Viking asked.

"What's happening?" A Viking woman asked.

"What if they never come back?" Another Viking asked.

Hiccup awkwardly cowered in the middle of it all raising his arms to shield himself from their questions. "Stop! Wait!" He begged.

"Calm down!" Stoick ordered pushing several other Vikings away from his son. "Give him a chance to speak!" He stopped in front of Hiccup and held out his hands pleadingly. "Hiccup, where are all the dragons going?"

"Dad…I don't know." Hiccup said shaking his head in confusion.

Stoick let out a sad sigh and the crowd of Vikings did the same. A roar from behind made Hiccup turn around. Stormfly was hovering over Toothless who was rearing up on his hind legs and roaring to her. Hiccup knew why Toothless was resisting. He couldn't fly off if he wanted too. Stormfly eventually backed off and flew away and Toothless settled back on four legs looking at the clouds of dragons flying away from Berk.

* * *

Later that evening, the whole village was gathered at Great Hall for a meeting. Confused Vikings talked to one another while they waited.

"Where'd they go?" One Viking was still asking.

"Snoggletog is ruined!" Moaned another.

"It's not ruined!" Stoick boomed standing up on the stone basin that surrounded the bonfire at the centre of Mead Hall. "We're Vikings! We've been perfectly happy celebrating without dragons for generations! And there's no reason we can't do it again."

There were a few reluctant agreements from the crowd. At the back of the hall where Hiccup and the rest of the teens were though nobody looked very pleased.

"Now, we don't know where they've gone off to. But in the morning Ragnar is going to work out where they have gone to. We just have to have faith that they'll be back again soon." Stoick said. He looked around and said almost pleadingly. "Am I right?"

More agreements came from the crowd but the loudest one came from Gobber. "You're right!" yelled Gobber loudly waving a couple of lanterns in the air. "We are Vikings! We are tough!" The other Vikings nearby him took in the jingle bells wrapped around his prosthetic arm and the holly twined around the horns on his helmet and looked at him strangely. "Most of the time." Gobber said lowering his arm.

With Gobber's festive appearance the mood in the hall began to improve for the adults, but the teens were still slouching gloomily against the wall.

"Let's sing some Snoggletog songs!" Gobber suggested.

Snotlout then pushed himself off the wall nudged Tuffnut to tell him he was leaving and stalked out followed by the rest of the teens.

* * *

"That was depressing." Ruffnut grumbled as they trudged through the silent village.

"I know!" Astrid replied unhappily. "I was looking forward to spending the holiday with Stormfly."

"Same with Skull." Ragnar said looking sad.

The depressing silence was broken suddenly as Fishlegs began whistling in a very carefree manner.

"What are you so happy about? Don't you miss Meatlug?" Tuffnut asked frowning.

Fishlegs stopped whistling. "Me?" He said, his eyes growing wide. "Uh… yeah!" He cleared his throat and awkwardly covered his face with his hands letting out a sob. "I miss him so much!" He choked out in a slightly high-pitched voice. He peeked out from his arms to see that Tuffnut and the others were looking at him suspiciously. "Well, good night!" Fishlegs chirped hurriedly shuffling off.

For a few seconds the teens just stood there looking after Fishlegs's retreating form. Then Astrid suddenly gasped and jumped in front of the group.

"I've got an idea! Let's come up with a bunch of new holiday traditions! You know to bury the sadness!" Astrid said grinning eagerly waiting for their reactions.

Snotlout and the twins sighed and slouched a few inches lower. "Actually Astrid might be on to something." Hiccup said.

"Easy for you to say." Tuffnut frowned gesturing to something behind him. "Your dragon can't go anywhere without you."

Hiccup and the others turned and saw Toothless perched on a cliff in the distance looking longingly up at the sky. The dragon awkwardly shuffled around at the edge of the cliff like he wanted to fly off to join the others.

"Must be nice." Ruffnut grumbled turning around and stalking off followed closely behind by the others.

Hiccup was left alone staring at the distant figure of his dragon.


	2. New Snoggletog Traditions

The next morning a group of children were built a snow sculpture of a Gronkle and were leaning against it sadly. The sad silence however, was broken with Astrid's shrill voice ringing through the village.

"Yaknog!" Astrid yelled walking through the village holding a shield with a pitcher and two mugs. "Get your yaknog! Come on, get a frothy delicious cup of cheer!" Spotting Snotlout and the twins she happily dashed over and presented the drink happily. "Hey you guys try this tasty new beverage I made for the holiday."

Tuffnut took a sniff and wrinkled his nose. "Ugh what's that smell? Is that you?" He said pushing Ruffnut over.

"It's yaknog!" Astrid said picking up the pitcher and making a big show of pouring a generous amount into one of the mugs. The drink was mix between yak milk and eggs with hairs in it.

Tuffnut watched the lumpy mixture pool in the mug and gagged. "Ugh if I drink that I'm going to yaknog all over the place."

"Maybe you'd rather taste a punch in the face?" Astrid suggested pleasantly.

When Ruffnut got up she approached the offending drink sticking her tongue out at the smell. Astrid's eyes narrowed dangerously but then Snotlout walked up.

"Astrid it sounds delightful. I'd love a mug." Snotlout said picking up one of the mugs and drunk it. Astrid shot a smug look at the twins missing the look of panic on Snotlout's face. Astrid looked back to see his reaction just as he swallowed. "Uh…you can really taste the yak." Snotlout said weakly as he gingerly setting the cup back down on the shield.

Just then, Fishlegs arrived. His face lit up at the sight of the drink and he nearly knocked Tuffnut over in his haste to reach it. "Oh yum! What is that?"

"Ooh! You want to try some? It's my new traditional drink!" Astrid said as her face lit up at his enthusiasm. Unknown to her Snotlout was shaking his head at Fishlegs warning him not to drink it.

"Oh," Fishlegs said took the hint. He stammered backing away and looking a little disappointed. "You know… um I have suddenly and uh, inexplicably changed my mind."

"Well you don't know what you're missing." Astrid said huffily. She turned and began to walk away in the direction of the forge. "I bet Hiccup will love this."

The twins shook their head in half amusement half disgust as she walked away. In-between them Snotlout was clutching his stomach and bending over slightly his face showing obvious signs of nausea. Ruffnut leaned in to Snotlout and squinted.

"Are you crying?" She asked.

Astrid had reached the Snoggletog-decorated forge. Looking around and not seeing anyone she called out. "Hiccup, Ragnar we guys in here?"

"Yeah I'm over here Astrid coming." Hiccup yelled. Hiccup was at the back of the forge. Astrid came closer and saw Hiccup standing over something on the workbench holding a pair of pliers in one hand. "Ragnar is in his room figuring it what happened to the dragons."

"Well here!" Astrid said cheerfully holding out the platter of yaknog. "Happy holidays from me to you."

"Thank you milady." Hiccup said smiling grabbing a mug and without even looking at its contents raised it to his mouth to take a sip. Before he could taste it Ragnar entered the room. Once he saw the platter he grabbed the other mug.

"So Ragnar have you found anything?" Astrid asked.

"I think so follow me?" Ragnar said. They walked into his room and saw paper with graphs pasted all over the walls.

"So what have you found out?" Astrid asked looking at the graphs.

"Well if you look at this graph here." Ragnar said pointing at graph. Both Hiccup and Astrid looked at it but all they saw was one line going up and down. "This graph here is from last year and shows the amount of dragon attacks that happened." He then pointed at line over the month where they celebrated Snoggletog it just went straight down. "It seems always at this month the dragons go somewhere on some kind of migration. But they return the next month."

"So they'll be back." Hiccup said.

"It looks that way." Ragnar said.

"But where did they go?" Astrid asked.

"I don't know." Ragnar said.

"Well at least it's something." Astrid said. Astrid then turned to face Hiccup. "What are you up to when I came in?"

"Okay, uh, you're gonna think I'm crazy." Hiccup said as they walked back into the forge towards a table. He then placed the mug on the table. "But I just couldn't stop thinking about what Tuffnut said last night. Toothless can't come and go like the other dragons and that's…just…not…fair." Astrid set her platter of yaknog on the table to get a better look. Hiccup had made another tail fin but this time it had a series of cogs and metal parts affixed to the end. He held it steady with one hand and cranked down a lever on it with the other. "I was up all night and I think I've found a way to fix that."

With that happy proclamation, he picked up the mug of yaknog and took a mouthful. Astrid was so amazed she didn't seem to hear the panicked gagging noises coming from her friend.

"No way! You built him a new tail? So he's going to be able to fly without you!" Astrid said in amazement. Hiccup, his eyes wide and his cheeks bulging with yaknog nodded.

"Wow! What a great gift!" Astrid said softly while Hiccup silently put the mug down on the table and stood there awkwardly holding the yaknog in his mouth. Astrid stared at the tail for a few seconds and then said quietly. "What if he never comes back?" Hiccup paused and lowered his head sadly. Then once she realised what she had said corrected herself and laughed. "What am I saying? Ragnar just said he would." Astrid picked up the tray of yaknog and sauntered off happily. "Well, I'm going to go spread some more holiday cheer! You're amazing!" She then ran out of the forge.

Hiccup watched her go then quickly opened his mouth and spit all the yaknog out onto the floor spitting several times afterward to get rid of the taste. Ragnar then rushed in the room spitting as well.

"Hiccup whatever you do don't drink the-." Ragnar said before he noticed the yaknog on the floor. "Oh never mind."

"Let forget Astrid's new drink shall we." Hiccup said rubbing his mouth on his sleeve.

"I wish I could." Ragnar muttered rubbing his mouth as well.

Hiccup shook his head and turned back to the new tail.

* * *

A few moments later Hiccup was walking next to his house. He looked up and saw Toothless was on top of the roof again stomping and roaring sending shingles dropping onto the snow below.

"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled. Toothless stopped and looked at him. "Come on down, bud. I got something for ya." Toothless zoomed down and eagerly looked at the new tail sniffing it experimentally. Hiccup smiled. "What do you think of that? Yeah!"

Hiccup headed toward Toothless' tail but Toothless kept on following him. "Will you just settle down! Toothless! Come on bud let me get this on ya!"

Toothless finally stopped walking and held still as Hiccup knelt down by the tail and strapped it in. Toothless looked back and growled curiously. Hiccup looked up from his work and smiled wistfully. "Yeah you are…going to love this." He clicked the last cog into place and patted the tail. "Okay."

He stood up and Toothless swished it around experimentally. It took two seconds for the dragon to figure out he didn't like it and he began romping in circles shaking it trying to get it off. Hiccup put up his hands to try and stop him. "No, no, no Toothless stop please wait! Toothless, please—!"

Toothless then whipped his tail fin toward the ground and at that moment the new tail fin snapped out to its full size. Toothless froze his ears perking up and his eyes widening in surprised. Hiccup held still as Toothless waved it around to test it out.

"Ah there you go. See? Got it?" Hiccup said happily. The dragon angled his tail fin and automatically the new tail fin angled to fold the same way. Toothless looked both surprised and pleased.

Toothless turned and looked at Hiccup his pupils suddenly turning to slits. Hiccup gave him a big smile waiting for a reaction. Toothless kept staring at him breathing in and out a few times. Hiccup sighed and extended a hand. "Toothless—"

At that moment Toothless then turned and with a spray of snow just flew away. Hiccup held up his arms to shield himself from the spray of snow the dragon's wings had flung at him and looked into the sky. Already Toothless was a mere shape in the distance flying away as fast as his wings could carry him a loud roar echoing over the island.

* * *

A few days later Hiccup was lying awake in bed unable to sleep staring at the ceiling. Hiccup sighed and turned over in his bed. At that moment he heard thumping on the roof. Hiccup sat up his eyes wide.

"Toothless!" Hiccup gasped throwing the covers off him and scrambling out of bed. Hiccup dashed around to the side of the house without looking where he was putting his feet. "I knew you'd come back—whooaaaaAAAHH!"

He had carelessly slipped on a patch of ice andfell heavily on his back. He lay there for a few seconds with the wind knocked out of him too stunned to move. He looked up and saw his father hammering from the roof. When Stoick saw Hiccup he looked down and smiled.

"'Morning, son!" Stoick said. Hiccup stared up at his dad in disappointment before slowly getting up.

"Oh, hey, Dad…" Hiccup said in a sad tone

"Glad you're up. I was looking for your helmet." Stoick said as he climbed down.

"My… my helmet?" Hiccup cringed grinning nervously.

"Odin needs a place to put your goodies!" Stoick said grinning.

"Yeah, yeah right I'll…get on that… great." Hiccup muttered he then turned to leave.

"Hold on." Stoick ordered and walked towards him. Hiccup stopped and turned around. "Hold on. Alright come on. What's on your mind? Out with it."

"It's been three days Dad I…I just thought Toothless would be back by now." Hiccup sighed.

"Oh I'm sure he's with the other dragons." Stoick said.

"Yeah? I wish I could be that sure." Hiccup said.

Stoick sighed and looked straight at his son eye to eye. "Listen. I know what it's like to miss someone you love this time of year. But what do we do when they can't be here for the holiday?" Stoick said and placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder and smiled reassuringly. "We celebrate them. And I imagine that's exactly what Toothless would want you to do. "Right?"

"You're right," Hiccup said sadly.

"Good!" Stoick said cheerfully patting him on the back that nearly sent him into the ground. "Now go get that helmet. We've had enough disappointment around here." And he stomped back to the ladder to continue his job on the roof.

* * *

Later that day he was carrying some oars to the dock. As he rounded the corner he accidentally bumped Fishlegs, who was carrying an enormous basket of fresh fish. When Fishlegs saw Hiccup, his eyes grew wide and took on a nervous look.

"Oh, Fishlegs, you hungry? There's enough fish to feed a dragon!" Hiccup joked.

Fishlegs nervously glanced from side to side before letting out a loud, fake-sounding laugh. "Oh! A dragon! Heh heh that's…eh…." Fishlegs said and he quickly dashed off the way he had come.

Hiccup stared after him suspiciously. Hiccup desided to follow him. He watched as Fishlegs kick open the door to a barn and awkwardly back inside with the basket of fish. Once Fishlegs was inside Hiccup quickly hid behind the barn.

Fishlegs emerged a few seconds later. He peered around then quickly exited and shut the door behind him a giddy expression on his face. As he ran past Hiccup's hiding place Hiccup carefully stepped out and walked over to the barn. He set the oars up against the building checked to make sure Fishlegs wasn't looking and opened the doors.

The moment he opened the door Meatlug exploded out of the barn so fast that the chain securing him to a wooden beam broke and flew off with Hiccup plastered to he's face flying away from Berk as fast as he possibly could.

With effort Hiccup pushed himself up and got a good look at the Meatlug shocked. "Meatlug?"

The Gronkle's eyes snapped onto Hiccup but he made no move to stop or throw him off. As Meatlug clumsily dipped downward in the air they nearly hit Astrid and Ragnar as they flew past. When the two of them looked up their mouths hanged open.

"Hiccup where are you going?" Astrid asked.

"I have no idea!" Hiccup screamed back as flew away.

Astrid stood there shaking her head in utter confusion as Hiccup and Meatlug disappeared. "Meatlug!" she heard Fishlegs cry behind her and she turned around to see him standing at the barn watching Hiccup and his dragon disappeared into the distance. "What about presents? Hey…!"

* * *

A few moments later all the Vikings teens were in the barn.

"I can't believe him!" Fishlegs said.

"You can't believe him?" Astrid said furiously thrusting her hand at the thick chain on the ground. "You kidnapped your dragon!"

"Well that makes it sound so mean." Fishlegs said sounding hurt.

Bored with the argument already Ruffnut nudged her twin and they both walked over to the pile of hay at the very back at the barn. Kneeling down and starting to rummage through it their eyes grew wide.

"Hey guys…?" Tuffnut said not tearing his eyes away from what was hiding under the hay.

"He flew away the second he was unleashed!" Astrid retorted.

"And took Hiccup with to who knows where." Ragnar said.

"I'm seventy two per cent sure he wanted to stay!" Fishlegs protested.

"Guys!" Tuffnut yelled.

Fishlegs glanced away from Astrid and looked surprised. "Whoa! Meatlug barfed up a pile of rocks!" Astrid and Ragnar looked down at the hay blue bumpy rocks each about the side of a hen hidding in the hay.

"You're such an idiot. Those aren't rocks your dragon laid eggs!" Ruffnut said rolling her eyes.

"Hey wait!" Astrid exclaimed holding up one of the eggs. "I bet that's why the dragons left! To lay their eggs!"

"That explains why they left but not where they went." Ragnar said studying the eggs.

"But…boy dragons don't lay eggs." Fishlegs said confused.

"Yeah…your boy dragon is a girl dragon." Ruffnut said putting her hands on her hips.

"Okay! That actually explains a few things." Fishlegs said. But then he turned to Ragnar still confused. "But you said Meatlug was a boy."

"I said that female dragons were a lot more hostile than males. Meatlug just wasn't as hostile as other female dragons." Ragnar said.

At that moment Astrid leaped up excited. "Hey! Everyone's missing their dragons right?"

"Ohh, here it comes…" Snotlout groaned.

Grabbing a stray ribbon from a left over decorating box Astrid turned her back to her friends for a few seconds. "I've got an idea! It'll be another new Snoggletog tradition!" She turned around and proudly displayed the Gronkle egg which was now wrapped in red ribbon complete with a bow.

A few minutes later the six teens snuck out of the barn each holding two wrapped Gronkle eggs in their hands. "Ooooh, this is gonna be so good…!" Astrid squealed. With that they all set off in different directions sneaking into empty houses and quietly depositing the eggs in the Vikings helmets.


	3. Happy Snoggletog

Meanwhile Hiccup was still being carried through a thick fog on Meatlug. They were flying through some giant rock formations that would jump out at them from the mist. Once they narrowly avoided a head-on collision with a particularly thick-looking rock.

"Meatlug, where are you taking me?" Hiccup asked. Meatlug just ignored him and just kept on flying.

Another shape appeared out of the mist but this time it was an old Viking ship that had crashed there. Hiccup yelled and yanked on Meatlug's head fins steering the dragon away in the nick of time. They then flew toward the open sky and then levelled out above the mist.

Eventually, the clouds gave way and an island came into view. It wasn't a particularly beautiful island. It was very rocky, with a giant pool in the very centre that took up about a third of the island. Hiccup couldn't see any plants whatsoever.

Meatlug then flew down and skidded to a halt on the rocky ground. Hiccup quickly dismounted and the Meatlug walked away. Hiccup walked over to the edge of the ledge they had landed on and let out a small gasp.

He saw every dragon from Berk there and they had babies with them. Most of the adult dragons were lazing around in sunbeams while their babies flew and jumped around them squawking and chitterling excitedly.

"You guys come here to have babies." Hiccup said in amazement. He watched a Deadly Nadder walk up to her babies and regurgitate some food while her baby scrambled to eat the stuff. "Whoa…"

Just below the ledge something caught his eye. A Gronkle was rolling several eggs into holes filled with water. Hiccup carefully slid down the ledge to see nearly bumping into a couple of baby dragons playing around.

Hiccup knelt by the water hole and watched in fascination as a baby Gronkle hauled itself out of the water and immediately took to the air flying about six feet before tumbling head over feet a few times and stopped in front of its mother. More baby Gronkles followed afterward. Most were green like the Gronkle but there were also a couple of brown ones, and even a pink one.

Hiccup finally glanced away and noticed one last egg sitting at the edge of the water hole. He stood up and walked toward it calling over his shoulder to Gronkle. "Hey look over here, you missed one—"

The egg suddenly began to shake violently and without warning it exploded in an enormous burst of flames sending Hiccup sprawling backwards. The baby Gronkle thudded on the ground in a ball as the Gronkle and siblings cautiously approached it. The baby uncurled itself stretched with a big yawn and waddled off to find something to do.

Hiccup was left lying flat on his back on the ground with his clothes burnt. He sat up and stared with wide eyes at the broken shell which was at least an inch thick.

"Man it's a good thing those don't hatch on Berk!" Hiccup said to himself.

* * *

Meanwhile back at Berk. Astrid had quietly placed the last Gronkle egg in somebody's boot and tiptoed out to meet the others not noticing that it was beginning to smoke.

Astrid shut the door behind her and skipped toward her friends. "Wasn't this a great idea?" she grinned happily. Everybody grinned and nodded.

"Uh-huh! Everyone is going to be so surprised!" Fishlegs said barely contain his excitement.

At that very moment the house Astrid had just come out of the door suddenly exploded and destroyed most of the front of the house. A piece of debris pelted toward Fishlegs and hit him in the head sending the him to the ground.

"Surprise!" Snotlout said grinning.

The debris turned out to be a baby Gronkle which fell from the sky and landed on Fishlegs's stomach. It yawned widely and blinked sleepily up at the teens. Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Snotlout all leaned forward and looked at the baby Gronkle and smiled.

"Aww…" They said. Astrid and Ragnar however look at it with absolute horror.

"The eggs…explode?" They said with horror.

There was a short silence and then suddenly a house exploded taking out part of its roof. Another house followed soon after. Vikings began to run out into the open screaming.

"The eggs explode!" Astrid shrieked her hands flying to her face.

One by one the eggs were exploding, blowing walls, doors and roof shingles off various houses. Vikings were running to and fro, not knowing what was happening, screaming and trying to help each other. Astrid was frantically running around and crying, "Sorry!" to anyone who would listen. Baby Gronkles and random debris flew through the air. Two Gronkles crashed into each other and promptly settled down to watch the show.

"Awesome!" Ruffnut gasped watching with excitement.

"Wow!" Tuffnut breathed his eyes following a flaming piece of wood as it shot through the air and crashed into someone's house.

Fishlegs was holding a baby Gronkle and petting it softly silently watching the chaos unfold in front of them. Ragnar cringed every time a house exploded. Snotlout crossed his arms and turned to look at Astrid.

"This is your best idea yet!" Snotlout said.

"Look at the bright side Astrid at least you know how Hiccup felt every time he screwed up." Ragnar said.

From the way Astrid looked she didn't see it as a bright side. The Vikings slowly began to stop running as they noticed the wooden tree in the centre of the village. Three large pieces of flaming debris had crashed into it and now the tree was nothing but a giant flare.

As the explosions gradually stopped and a stunned silence fell over the village, Stoick stalked up to the tree and turned to face the crowd his eyes livid. "What in Thor's name is going on?"

"The eggs explode." Astrid whispered with blinked wide-eyed at the angry chief.

Behind her one more house exploded and Ragnar closed his eyes and cringed as it did. Then everything went silent and Astrid offered a weak smile.

* * *

Meanwhile Hiccup was still on the small islanded looking for Toothless.

"Toothless, Toothless!" Hiccup yelled as he roaming around. "Oh Toothless, where are you?"

As he came to the top of another ledge he found himself looking down at Skull, Stormfly and Hookfang. Hiccup felt a smile jump onto his face. Around were baby dragons Skull's babes looked weak and feral since they didn't have any bone armour all of them same colour scales as him, Stormfly had three babies one with her colour, another green and the late one a bright purple and Hookfang had three as well one with his colour, another yellow and the last one a dark purple.

"Hookfang!" Hiccup cried happily leaping off the ledge and running forward. Hookfang dipped his head down and allowed Hiccup to rub his nose. "Skull!" Hiccup said walking over to him patting him under his chin. "Stormfly!" Hiccup said walking over to her. "Oh…you have no idea how happy I am to see you guys!" Stormfly nuzzled him affectionately.

Hiccup looked down and grinned. "And you have…babies? Aw, look at you guys all happy together!" He said as he knelt down to pet them and Stormfly got up and moved away to give him some room. All three of them chattered at Hiccup eagerly pushing each other out of the way to get a chance to see him.

Hiccup laughed as the purple Deadly Nadder nuzzled his arm and he scratched it under the chin. "Who knew you were leaving to celebrate your own sort of holiday?" He said thoughtfully.

"I should get back to my holiday," Hiccup said grinning, standing up and looking at Skull, who cocked his head to the side. "So what do you say there, Skull? Think you could give me a ride back home?" Hiccup asked. Skull bent down and allowed Hiccup to climb onto his neck and jumped into the air.

Hiccup waved at the rest of the dragons down below. "I'll see you all back on Berk when you're good and ready! Okay, gang?" Hiccup yelled.

Stormfly however took this as a sign to follow him and she leaped into the air with a cry. Several other dragons saw her movements and copied them, and soon Hiccup had the entire island of dragons getting ready to come back home. "Oh no!" Hiccup yelped, shaking a hand at the dragons to try and dissuade them from following him. "No, no, no…I think I just started the return migration." He said to himself.

On the ground, all the baby dragons were squawking excitedly and wiggling their wings, getting ready to take off. Then, in one wave, they began running to the edge of the island ready to take flight.

"Well, if you insist…" Hiccup said giving up. He watched feeling a bit nervous as the first group of baby dragons reached the edge of the island.

One by one five baby dragons Stormfly's children, one of Skull's and one of Hookfang's leaped off into the air their wings flapping frantically. "Come on…" Hiccup muttered under his breath.

Slowly but surely the dragons began to gain height. Chattering in excitement, they began to fly faster. Unfortunately, it was windy around the island and the baby dragons' weight couldn't hold against the currents. One by one they were blown back onto the island.

"Oh boy, this is never going to work." Hiccup frowned.

The four baby dragons got up again and shook the dust off themselves. The other babies shuffled uncertainly on the ledge crying up at their parents. The adults hovered above in the air not sure what to do next.

Hiccup knit his brow and thought for a second then he got an idea. "Oh! Hold on." He yelled to the dragons below. "I've got just the thing." He patted Skull's neck and they flew off.

* * *

Meanwhile on Berk The Vikings were patching things up the best they could but it would take quite a while to get the village back to how it was. Meatlug's babies had fallen asleep around some of the food supplies and were twitching in their sleep, occasionally rolling over and letting out a squeaky yawn.

Stoick and Gobber walked out of a destroyed house talking. "Gobber, this is a disaster," Stoick groaned.

"Ach, it's not so bad," Gobber said shrugging.

"Not that bad?" Stoick said angrily as they stomped out of the house and into the open. "The village is destroyed, the dragons have gone and left us…let's face it. This holiday is a complete—what are these people looking at?" He grumbled noticing staring fixedly at the sky. Stoick followed their gaze and narrowed his eyes in confusion. "What is that?"

It looked like a big dark cloud was moving toward them. As it came nearer the shapes became more defined and the cloud began to break up into over a hundred silhouettes of flying dragons. Something else was hanging below them suspended by ropes that were held in the dragons' mouths and talons. It was an old Viking ship and leading the pack on Skull was Hiccup.

"It's Hiccup!" Stoick yelled.

"And our dragons!" Astrid gasped, lowering the hammer she had been using to fix a house.

"There's one thing you say about Hiccup, he sure knows how to make an entrance." Ragnar said in amazement.

All the Vikings began to cheer and wave their hands to try and attract their dragons. The dragons flew closer and closer to the island, dropping lower and lower until the old ship touched ground. The ship crashed about a foot into the ice and skidded to a halt right in front of the crowd of Vikings. The dragons all released their ropes, and the ship tipped to the side and with one large crash, finally lay still. The Vikings watched the ship with anticipation.

Slowly a baby Deadly Nadder emerged, followed by a baby Hideous Zippleback. The Vikings began to gasp and squeal with excitement as the rest of the babies began to dismount from their rides, their parents landing beside them. Skull dipped his neck down to the ice and Hiccup smoothly jumped off, taking a few steps forward and grinning at the faces on the Vikings. Cries of "Welcome back, laddie!" and "Good job!" were mingled with the happy shouts of the Vikings who were greeting their dragons.

"Yeah!" Snotlout cheered, running up to Hookfang and scratching the dragon behind his horns.

Up above in the air Meatlug was skimming over the island, her eyes frantically searching for her own babies. Finally spotting them by the food barrels, she landed, gazed at them all adoringly, and promptly regurgitated a pile of fish for them to eat. As the babies happily scampered towards the food, Fishlegs came flying out of nowhere and tackled his dragon to the ground.

"Meatlug!" He yelled slamming into her.

Stormfly had spotted Astrid and she and her babies were trotting up to meet her. "Stormfly!" Astrid wailed happily, throwing her arms around her dragon. "You're back! Ohhh…" She looked at the babies and her eyes lit up. "And there are babies!" she squealed bending down to pet them.

"Skull!" Ragnar yelled running up to him. He rubbed the side of his neck. He then noticed something pull at his leg of his pants. He looked down and saw Skull's babies and began to pet them. "Welcome to Berk."

"Well done, son!" Stoick said giving him a bear hug.

"Thanks Dad." Hiccup gasped, clutching his stomach and taking deep breaths.

In a considerably better mood, Stoick spread his arms and looked at the crowd. "Everyone grab your dragons! To the Great Hall! We finally have something to celebrate!" He yelled.

* * *

Within minutes every Viking and dragon were celebrating. Hiccup strolled through the Great Hall amongst dragons, happy Vikings and tables laden with food.

He passed a table with Fishlegs, who had a baby Gronkle in each hand and had reverted to baby talk. "This is the best holiday ever! Who's a baby? Who's a cutie baby?" He yelled.

Beside him, Snotlout was petting one of Hookfang's children, occasionally jerking his hand back as the dragon let out a burst of flame from its mouth. Beside the table, a couple was scratching a Gronkle under the chin. Two children were holding mugs of cocoa a baby Hideous Zippleback between them trying to steal a sip. One small girl was dragging around a grumpy-looking Terrible Terror that was almost as big as she was.

Hiccup smiled as he saw everyone celebrating with their dragons. But deep inside him missed Toothless. Astrid and Ragnar then walked up to him with sad looks on their faces.

"Hiccup, I know this must be really hard for you, seeing everyone with their dragons." Astrid said nervously taking his hand and smiled. "But you really did a wonderful thing. Thank you." She leaned forward and kissed him quickly before pulling him into a tight hug. Hiccup's arms instinctively went around her and he laid his chin on her shoulder. For a few seconds they just stood like that quietly.

"Yeah! I just wish there was some way of helping you." Ragnar said with his eyes closed.

"Just would like to know where did Toothless go?" Hiccup said quietly.

"I don't know." Astrid said sadly looked up, her eyes landing on the door of the Great Hall.

The door to the Great Hall had opened, and Toothless was tentatively sticking his head inside. He stepped in and glanced around the room before spotting Astrid with Hiccup and perking up. He quickly started walking towards them, attracting the attention of quite a few Vikings along the way.

Astrid's mouth fell open and suddenly had an idea. Grinning deviously, she pulled out of the hug and braced her hands on Hiccup's shoulders.

"Wow. Man! Wouldn't want to be you right now. I mean, you brought back everyone's dragon except yours." Astrid said.

Ragnar looked confused until he saw Toothless behind Hiccup. "Yeah! Pity you weren't able to find him."

Hiccup's face went from confused to annoyed. "Yeah, you know, this is not helping at all guy," He said crossly.

Astrid and Ragnar grinned and Astrid shoved Hiccup backward, spinning him around so he came face to face with Toothless running to meet him.

Hiccup's eyes widened and smiled. "TOOTHLESS! Hey, bud!"

Toothless eagerly dashed up to the Hiccup, coming to a halt. Hiccup smiled at him and quickly threw his arms around the dragon's neck, hugging him tightly.

Everyone watched and smiled as Hiccup opened his eyes and quickly drew away.

"Bad dragon! Very bad dragon!" Hiccup scolded, waving his finger at him. "You scared me to death! Don't ever stay away that long again and…what is in your mouth?" He said noticing that he was holding something in his mouth. Toothless then immediately opened his mouth and put whatever it was right on Hiccup's head and covered him in saliva. All the Viking teens looked on with disgust.

When Toothless pulled his head back it turned out the thing that was in his mouth was Hiccup's helmet which was now on Hiccup's head. Hiccup's hair was also now completely soaked, gingerly brushed spit off his face.

"Yeah, you found my helmet." Hiccup said brushing the saliva out of his eyes and suddenly froze. "Hey! You found my helmet! That's where you've been?" Hiccup grinned and held Toothless' head in both hands looked him in the eye. "Buddy thank you. You…are amazing."

Then everyone cheering and clapping from the crowd. Hiccup hugged Toothless again Astrid and Ragnar went up to greet Toothless and grinned.

"Happy Snoggletog!" Astrid yelled.

* * *

The next morning Hiccup was woken by the house shaking again. Hiccup immediately got up, yawned, and jumped out of bed.

At the front door Hiccup paused to look at the village. Then he heard a roar from behind the house brought Hiccup back to reality.

"I'm coming, Toothless!" Hiccup said smiling and hopping down the steps. "All right bud, come on down," Hiccup said as he rounded the corner. "I was just…" He stopped and stared.

Toothless wasn't on the roof. He was sitting on the ground, staring at Hiccup expectantly. His old saddle and tail fin were spread out in the snow in front of him.

"Toothless, what'd you pull this out for?" Hiccup said confused shoving the saddle out of the way with his boot. "You don't need this anymore." He walked up to Toothless' side and prepared to mount him. "C'mon, let's get going." But Toothless quickly got up and moved away from him, turning around and sitting back down in front of the old riding equipment.

Hiccup shook his head in confusion. "Would you quit fooling around? You have your new tail now," Hiccup said trying to mount Toothless again but Toothless ducked away again. Hiccup smiled uncertainly. "Toothless!"

Toothless glanced down at the equipment, then slowly held up his tail and looked at it. Toothless then lifted the tail higher, looked Hiccup in the eye and without any warning at all began to whip his tail against the ground smashing the fin as hard as he could.

Hiccup's eyes widened in shock. "Toothless! Stop! What are you doing?" Hiccup yelled.

The tail fin then snapped but Toothless kept shaking his tail frantically until the fin detached itself and was flung ten feet away into a snowdrift. Hiccup stood there, staring in disbelief. Toothless gently took the old saddle in his mouth and tugged it across the snow in front of him. Once he dropped it he looked up at Hiccup with wide eyes and patted it with his front paw.

Hiccup then got what Toothless was trying to say and smiled.

A few minutes later both Hiccup and Toothless were in the sky flying around. Once they levelled out in the air Hiccup slowly unbuckled himself from the harness.

"Okay, bud, you ready?" Hiccup asked.

Toothless gave a small growl. Hiccup unhooked his prosthetic from the stirrup, braced himself and leaped off Toothless's back into the open sky. They both began to free fall head first side by side.

Hiccup couldn't stop grinning. He glanced at Toothless. The dragon gave him a wide, upside down, toothless smile. He reached out a paw and playfully gave Hiccup a small push, causing the boy to spin around in the air.

As the island rapidly zoomed up to meet them, Toothless quickly spun around and Hiccup grabbed onto the saddle, strapping himself back in and make the tail fin snap out to the side. Toothless spread his wings out and he pulled up and zoomed over the forest, just brushing the tips of the trees and spraying snow in all directions.

Winter in Berk lasts most of the year. It hangs on with both hands and won't let go and the only real comforts against the cold are those you keep close to your heart. Turns out that was the best Snoggletog ever. I asked Hiccup what Toothless thought about that great gift he gave him. He just said that he gave him a better one.

_Written by Ragnar the All Knowing_


End file.
